New Orleans Pelicans: 3 factors for success in NBA’s Orlando restart

The New Orleans Pelicans will go into the remainder of the 2019-20 NBA season with nothing to lose and everything to gain.

As we approach the resumption of the NBA’s regular season, teams are beginning to make strides towards their final eight games down in Orlando’s bubble and talk over what will go down there is heating up amongst fans. After four months off, all form goes out of the window, and the potential to make the playoffs is legitimate for almost all of the 22 teams that have made the trip to Florida.

For the New Orleans Pelicans, this structure is perfect. A team that was beginning to make real progress after finally putting together an extremely talented core goes into the bubble with nothing to lose and plenty of chances to wreak havoc in the Western Conference, potentially grabbing that eighth seed, in the process.

This all depends, of course, on the situation with rookie sensation Zion Williamson who left the bubble this week due to an urgent family issue. Of course, the importance of this issue, whatever it may be,  weighs much heavier than what Zion and the Pelicans are facing in Orlando, and everybody’s thoughts are with Zion and his family.

From a basketball standpoint, if Zion doesn’t play, then it could be another disappointing end to a Pelicans season. However, with Brandon Ingram also leading this team that includes defensive talents like Jrue Holiday and Lonzo Ball, there is plenty of potential to make the playoffs – which would be an above par ending to this exciting Pelicans season.

There’s a lot to like about this young Pelicans team and there’s plenty of dimensions to the roster which could help them succeed down in Orlando. Here we’re going to look at the three X-factors this side has that will help them in their quest to make the playoffs this season.